Jon Turney
@jonturney.bsky.social
Writer & editor, past lives in science policy, sci-comm etc. Retirement pastimes include managing climate anxieties. New writing at UKjazznews.com and @theartsdesk.bsky.social
jonturney.wordpress.com
See also https://bristoljazzlive.co.uk
jonturney.wordpress.com
See also https://bristoljazzlive.co.uk
Reposted by Jon Turney
A key point about "volunteering" is that it should be "voluntary". By forcing migrants to volunteer this government not only treats us as if we are a free resource, but also ignores everything else we go through. This policy is dehumanising and exploitative.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
UK charities condemn ‘immoral’ plans to force asylum seekers to volunteer
Making volunteering compulsory for refugees slammed as exploitative, bureaucratic and un-British
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:15 PM
A key point about "volunteering" is that it should be "voluntary". By forcing migrants to volunteer this government not only treats us as if we are a free resource, but also ignores everything else we go through. This policy is dehumanising and exploitative.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Excellent new sculpture from my chums at Real World Visuals - showing British Land's carbon emission savings...
More here
www.realworldvisuals.com/rwv-projects...
More here
www.realworldvisuals.com/rwv-projects...
November 14, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Excellent new sculpture from my chums at Real World Visuals - showing British Land's carbon emission savings...
More here
www.realworldvisuals.com/rwv-projects...
More here
www.realworldvisuals.com/rwv-projects...
Reposted by Jon Turney
Leading medical publication the British Medical Journal recognises SUVs as a danger to public health in a new editorial co-authored by T&E’s James Nix: bit.ly/4hVDlBC
Large SUVs are a danger to pedestrians, cyclists & other drivers.
It's time to take action to reduce their presence in urban areas.
Large SUVs are a danger to pedestrians, cyclists & other drivers.
It's time to take action to reduce their presence in urban areas.
November 12, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Leading medical publication the British Medical Journal recognises SUVs as a danger to public health in a new editorial co-authored by T&E’s James Nix: bit.ly/4hVDlBC
Large SUVs are a danger to pedestrians, cyclists & other drivers.
It's time to take action to reduce their presence in urban areas.
Large SUVs are a danger to pedestrians, cyclists & other drivers.
It's time to take action to reduce their presence in urban areas.
Is it possible this is partly due to more people being pissed off about more things than we have been accustomed to?
This govt's ability to promise one thing and piss some people off, then u-turn and promise something else and piss some other people off, whilst the first pissed off group still remain pissed off, thereby succeeding in pissing off everyone, has been a feature of Starmer's govt since day 1.
November 14, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Is it possible this is partly due to more people being pissed off about more things than we have been accustomed to?
Actually, FB is quite easy to use with well-kept feed. And some of us elders find it has its uses :)
Get your elders off Facebook now. They could not spot AI slop if it slapped them in the face. Just delete their accounts when they’re not looking, or at least change their passwords. If it’s not “password123” try a few family members birthdays until you’re in.
The most horrifying AI slop of ICE raids you can possibly imagine is wildly viral on Facebook, collectively totaling tens of millions of views from a single account. First spotted by @chadloder.bsky.social
www.404media.co/ai-generated...
www.404media.co/ai-generated...
November 13, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Actually, FB is quite easy to use with well-kept feed. And some of us elders find it has its uses :)
Reposted by Jon Turney
I wrote one of the episodes for the newly relaunched Play For Today, which starts tonight (my episode is on in a couple of weeks). This is an article about that .
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Play for Today: The revival hoping to save British TV from a class crisis
Play for Today’s one-off films were a seminal moment in television in the Seventies and Eighties, writes Hannah J Davies. Decades later, Channel 5 is bringing them back, and aiming to diversify small-...
www.independent.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM
I wrote one of the episodes for the newly relaunched Play For Today, which starts tonight (my episode is on in a couple of weeks). This is an article about that .
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Reposted by Jon Turney
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Year of Judging the Booker Prize
By Alex Marshall
She read 153 books. I really liked this. It's clear her ideas about reading and practices of reading were changed forever. In spite of her celebrity, among people trained in literature, she was an ordinary reader.
Gift link!
By Alex Marshall
She read 153 books. I really liked this. It's clear her ideas about reading and practices of reading were changed forever. In spite of her celebrity, among people trained in literature, she was an ordinary reader.
Gift link!
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Year of Judging the Booker Prize
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Year of Judging the Booker Prize
By Alex Marshall
She read 153 books. I really liked this. It's clear her ideas about reading and practices of reading were changed forever. In spite of her celebrity, among people trained in literature, she was an ordinary reader.
Gift link!
By Alex Marshall
She read 153 books. I really liked this. It's clear her ideas about reading and practices of reading were changed forever. In spite of her celebrity, among people trained in literature, she was an ordinary reader.
Gift link!
Sure things are tight in the arts, but @southbankcentre.bsky.social are having a laugh. One QEH ticket incurs a £3.50 booking fee + £2.50 non-optional “restoration fund” charge, then a suggested £5 donation appears at checkout.
Honest ticket prices = warmer feelings from customers, I’m guessing.
Honest ticket prices = warmer feelings from customers, I’m guessing.
November 11, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Sure things are tight in the arts, but @southbankcentre.bsky.social are having a laugh. One QEH ticket incurs a £3.50 booking fee + £2.50 non-optional “restoration fund” charge, then a suggested £5 donation appears at checkout.
Honest ticket prices = warmer feelings from customers, I’m guessing.
Honest ticket prices = warmer feelings from customers, I’m guessing.
It probably doesn’t - oddly, the piece is rather good. Unclear why the need to sell it this way here :)
For @theipaper.com, I looked into 'microdramas', the short-form, social media series that are being eyed as a replacement for struggling soap operas. It says something quite terrifying about our attention spans that this is the way things are headed...
The two-minute soaps putting Corrie and EastEnders out of business
TV soap ratings are in decline - but millions of viewers are tuning in to shortform 'microdramas' on social media
inews.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 2:31 PM
It probably doesn’t - oddly, the piece is rather good. Unclear why the need to sell it this way here :)
Reposted by Jon Turney
Just been invited to the launch event of a report considering the 'future of the UK's research system' where they will be considering the creation of disruption labs named after Ada Lovelace and the report will be introduced by a panel of five men
November 11, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Just been invited to the launch event of a report considering the 'future of the UK's research system' where they will be considering the creation of disruption labs named after Ada Lovelace and the report will be introduced by a panel of five men
Reposted by Jon Turney
How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...
The 'Great Noticing' Era
Ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring
www.adambienkov.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 12:23 PM
How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...
"Anyone who thinks the 21st century will not see the biggest global movement of peoples in history has not been paying attention."
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
David Runciman · Are we doomed? The End of the Species
Are we doomed to die out? We find ourselves at the only point in the history of the species when the rate of population...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
"Anyone who thinks the 21st century will not see the biggest global movement of peoples in history has not been paying attention."
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
BBC live explaining: Who is Tim Davie? Who is Deborah Turness? Next question: who actually cares…?
November 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
BBC live explaining: Who is Tim Davie? Who is Deborah Turness? Next question: who actually cares…?
Reposted by Jon Turney
They really stuck the landing on this one.
New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009
November 7, 2025 at 10:05 PM
They really stuck the landing on this one.
Reposted by Jon Turney
Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?
November 7, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?
Yup
Jazz OTD: One of the all-time best ensembles, the original World Saxophone Quartet (Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, David Murray, and Hamiet Bluiett) recorded one of their best albums, "Live in Zurich," on November 6, 1981. Some brilliant pieces by Hemphill, one of jazz's greatest composers. #jazzsky
Bordertown
YouTube video by World Saxophone Quartet - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Yup
Reposted by Jon Turney
This is really excellent data journalism... Elon Musk has declared war on the British government, it just doesn't realise it.
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:30 AM
This is really excellent data journalism... Elon Musk has declared war on the British government, it just doesn't realise it.
Reposted by Jon Turney
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 AM
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
Reposted by Jon Turney
may hire a plane and fly that post over Westminster 24/7 for the next few months
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
November 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
may hire a plane and fly that post over Westminster 24/7 for the next few months
what would I give to see this revived?!
“The Crystal Palace fireworks themselves again for the season! An elaborate set-piece of prehistoric beasts of “The Lost World””
from the Illustrated London News, 18th July 1925
Big displays by Brock’s Fireworks (usually unrelated to Nov 5th) were an annual attraction at the Palace
from the Illustrated London News, 18th July 1925
Big displays by Brock’s Fireworks (usually unrelated to Nov 5th) were an annual attraction at the Palace
November 5, 2025 at 2:19 PM
what would I give to see this revived?!
obviously we wouldn't have wanted any part of this prioritising of ground-based transport when we can expand all our airports instead. Oh, wait...
We’re launching a bold plan to make high-speed rail the fastest, more sustainable way to travel across Europe by 2040.
It’s a concrete timeline to remove bottlenecks, unlock investment, and harmonise rail systems ⬇️
It’s a concrete timeline to remove bottlenecks, unlock investment, and harmonise rail systems ⬇️
November 5, 2025 at 11:35 AM
obviously we wouldn't have wanted any part of this prioritising of ground-based transport when we can expand all our airports instead. Oh, wait...